darwin's law
by Aiko Isari
Summary: A girl shows up at their camp, her own Digimon in tow. For a while, all seems well. But then, like everything so far, it doesn't. Sequel to The Boy and His Friends
1. Prologue

_Warnings: same as before, death, miscarriage, allusion to ostracization, timeline adjustment, intentional tense error_

* * *

 _Prologue - The Fresh Air_

Yagami Hikari knows she is dead.

She knows it as clearly as she knows her name. Her fingers cannot touch anything, she drifts in and out of space, hindered by her inability to make a difference in the places it matters. And yet… is she not making a difference now? She cannot be certain but she believes…

Does belief do a ghost, or whatever she is, any good?

She remembers existing. She remembers the moment she was captured into… no that isn't the right way to put it. Then again, did she have the words to put it any other way? She wasn't sure. She didn't have time to think about it. The universe didn't have the time.

She still remembers big brown eyes looking through her in such a worrying, pitiful way. Pure curiosity, something like innocence according to those books. They were as ignorant and puzzled as she.

Yagami Hikari would make the time, however. Once her part had a pause, she would find out why she existed when there was no life to exist.

But first, she had to reach out and grab hold of Yagami Taichi.

The world told her that he was a part of her life, that he in some sense was connected to her as were the sadder older ones in his home. She, as of yet, could not use this. (Using them sounded wholly laughable.)

So for now, she had to focus. What had been done? What needed to be?

It was at this point that Taichi, her brother if the designation was required, appeared.

He is carrying her cat. She isn't hissing anymore, still looks at him with distrustful, narrow blue eyes.

 _She's not mine,_ Hikari says to herself without a voice.

Even if she had one, she doubts that they would hear it. Not even her brother hears her. Maybe they aren't related. Maybe she is only real because of him. No, she could not focus on these many 'maybe's'. Her next task was here. The gate was opening.

So far, this world was exactly what you would expect from one that was like an adventure story. It was full of monsters that fought over territory. It was just dangerous enough to be real, and yet it was still possible to escape. The Chosen Ones had a hope. It was too bad that her brother didn't have very many fantasy novels around for her to read, no matter the struggle it was to turn the pages by herself at times. She would be much more well prepared and they would be also.

Actually, they would all be much better off if they could hear her. But alas, they could no. So, even though her brother was looking, he still couldn't exactly see what she was doing. So she felt safe reaching upwards into the sky. Though, to be completely truthful, if he had been able to see, there would have been another set of problems that she couldn't acknowledge now.

Instead, she focuses on reaching. Her fingers touch nothing and yet with care, she scrapes her nails into space. The air responds by moving out of the way, as the universe is smart enough to do when it was regarding her whims. She lunges upward without moving and _pulls._

Her target falls, quite inelegantly.

 _Early,_ whispers the universe. Well, she could pinpoint it. That voice probably isn't the universe. But it was related to the universe so the point stood. This was really way more difficult than it needed to be!

But it was necessary. That cat was a baby. It should not even have been a cat yet but it was. Something was wrong, very wrong. It needed to be purified as soon as possible. Or healed. Maybe both. There had to be some hope in the situation.

 _Remember_ , whispered the voice. _Light prefers to be intangible._

Hikari nodded firmly and disappeared. There was work to be done yet.

* * *

The many children cried for food. They were loud and cajoling, but they were in the dark. There was no food. There never would be. They were dying and living. It was for the best to the universe that they failed, that they fell apart and died. The wall behind them was growing ever closer, reaching for each delicate piece.

One child went closer, edging nearer with no feet, reaching fingers out with no hands. It wanted the wall. It could be edible. What was there to lose? Even more pain? Death?

The child reached forward with whatever it had… and to its surprise, a hand touched it in reply.

And something like a door opened.

* * *

The young woman woke up in pain.

Himekawa Maki couldn't understand why her whole body was taut with such agony, not at first. But then her mind, stern and analytical as it was trying to be, clamped down on the sensations. In the end, she was still a child herself, still growing and learning. So she closed her eyes and made herself breathe slowly and focus. If she didn't focus, the weight on her stomach would likely kill her. She couldn't deal with that. She wouldn't.

Beside her, a body moaned softly into her armpit. Not the best feeling in the world by half but it shook the pain away. "Hime-chan?"

Her expression eased and softened. "Yeah. Sorry. Something felt off." She let his arm wrap around her side. "Just woke me up. 'M okay now."

"We'll deal with it tomorrow," he murmured, trying to sound serious and businesslike, but only sounding fuzzy.

Maki nodded, tried to smile. "Tomorrow sounds good." She learned into Daigo's chest once more and let one eye rest on the window outside. The sky was as starless as ever in the big city. She could almost imagine the sand of the beach beneath her feet as Daigo showed her the same childhood places again and they looked smaller somehow. It was the same every year, and they would go a few tomorrows from now, in a serious way, in an adult way. It didn't scare her, of course not. It was just inevitable, like aging and adulthood and loss.

Because tomorrow would come, no matter what they did.

* * *

 _ **A/N:** _It's been a while but it's up guys! The sequel to The Boy In His Friends is up! It was going to be a part of something else but I decided not to wait. I hope you enjoy this as much as you enjoyed the first!

Challenges: Epic Masterclass adv list 4., Diversity Writing AM M2, season rewrite prompt - grab


	2. Chapter 1

_Chapter One - The New Girl_

Takenouchi Sora woke up to silence. After a moment, her ears corrected her, whispered breaths of sleeping children and abnormal monsters coming to life all around the forest clearing of what these monsters, these digimon, referred to as File Island. She raised her head. Beside her, the pink bird known as Piyomon shifted beside her. Before she could think about it, Sora smiled and smoothed the feathers down with her hand. This only succeeded in waking said bird.

"Sora," she whispered in alarm. "Is everything okay?"

"I…" She swallowed. "I'm not sure." The words came out slowly as she looked around. There should be fourteen of them, including the two of them. And yet…

Sora sat up all the way, nearly startling Piyomon to squawk. Yamato, dozing by the fire, looked up at her with concern. He didn't say anything at first, probably because of Takeru sleeping beside him. But as her eyes grew wider and wider, realization woke him up. With care, a lot more care than any stranger would have expected, he lowered Takeru's head onto Gabumon's fur. The child grumbled but he dozed back off easily enough.

Once certain of that, Yamato went by her side. "What?" he said, voice still a little groggy.

Sora slowed herself down a little. "Did you see Taichi leave?"

Yamato opened his eyes a little, forcing himself awake. "I don't remember." He sounded a little sheepish. She couldn't fault him, though the fear was making her want to. They were kids, not trained military soldiers used to standing guard at odd hours. "Maybe he just went to use the bathroom."

Sora wanted to concede that point, she really did. But a week and a half in this world had hardened her to the idea of paranoia being a possible, smart conclusion. "I don't know. Still, he would have told someone and he didn't wake you up."

Yamato nodded in agreement. "I'll wake up Jou." Jou, lanky and fraught with nerves was the closest thing to a medical officer that they had. If Taichi was hurt, he'd guess what to do and they could work it out. If only Koushiro was able to access google from here… he'd certainly tried.

Sora almost wanted to tell him not to, that she was worrying over nothing. But, she didn't think she was. She hadn't been close with Taichi, not in a long time. They just played on the same soccer team and had been in the same class a couple of times. The last time they had had a real deep intimate conversation she could remember was when he had said,

" _Hikari likes you. I think. She tends to stick around longer when you come over."_

But there was no one named Hikari in the registry. The mention of the word still made Yagami Yuuko tense in an unnatural way. There had meant to be in the past, when they were all small and didn't understand pregnancy or difficulties or pain. And now they did. And Taichi, well, Taichi probably hadn't handled it as well as everyone thought. But he wasn't harming anyone, so it was okay.

Except now he was missing. Hopefully just missing.

Right when she thought that, there was a giant flash of light.

Sora and Yamato looked at each other as everyone was woken up by the loud _boom_ that had accompanied it. Sora, without hesitation, bolted towards it. She knew enough from soccer, wherever the biggest problem or danger was, Taichi was usually sent there by the coach. So she had to hope he was either there or close by.

Piyomon flew after her, actually managing to glide this time. In any other circumstance, she would have praised her for it. But for now, they had to run through the forest and survive and save Taichi.

She was so busy looking forward that she didn't notice when the light went out.

* * *

Taichi stumbled at the weight of the new girl, the new person, trying so hard not to splash again, to fall and break his neck against the rocks. He shivered, quickly setting the girl on a nearby rock so she a), wouldn't float away, and b) he could shiver and retrieve a sputtering, fluffed up Tailmon.

"Was that necessary," she spat irritably. She shook herself.

"C-comple-e-etely," he managed to say, still shivering with cold in his t-shirt and shorts. The girl didn't shift, but the cat did, whining with pain.

"Owww." The cat's voice made Taichi's hair stand on end, so much louder than Tailmon's voice. She rarely spoke louder than the whisper in his ear, forcing him to have to relay her suggestions. None of the Digimon had been remotely surprised by this, but the humans had been. Taichi? Taichi didn't really care. He was used to being the loudest person in the area. His sister never spoke after all. Speaking of which-

He looked towards the shore and-

Yep, she was gone. Taichi let out a groan. Well, he couldn't say he was surprised. She was a ghost after all. Ghosts had plenty of things to do. Still made it rather annoying.

His socks gave an uncomfortable gurgle and Taichi sneezed. The sleeping girl started awake and Taichi noted with some bafflement that she was dressed in slightly dirty clothes. Not pajamas, which would have made sense because it was nighttime, but regular outdoor clothes. But the sun was down. So she wasn't dressed for bed. That meant… Hm.

Taichi was not Koushiro and the deeper implications of this would definitely escape him for the moment. But he understood enough: time wasn't moving at the same speed here as it was in his homeworld. And that cat's pain noise was a dialect of Japanese so this kid was probably also Japanese. So not much time had passed at home… or a lot of time had passed at home.

Taichi nodded to himself. Okay, they wouldn't know which until they got back. So they had to get back as quickly as possible anyway.

So, stretching his arms, he went to wake up the stirring girl. One good thing about her in play clothes meant that she had shoes! Which they needed to walk because there was no way he could carry her.

The younger girl opened her eyes a little and even in the lack of light Taichi could see a brilliant-

 _-Red-_

Pink color dazed by being formerly unconscious. Taichi's heart thudded, not with interest, but with fear.

Those were his sister's eyes.


	3. Chapter 2

_Chapter Two - Snowfall in Summer_

Yamato had only gone to summer camp because of two things: it was required for some extra credit, and for Takeru.

It wasn't that Takeru didn't have friends. His little brother used smarts and charmed people with a big innocent smile. He had seen him do it. But still… he shouldn't be so happy to see his big brother then. Not to that extent. Not to that point where he's willing to go to someone else's school event instead of going on vacation (Yamato was too young to realize lazing at home all day wouldn't be much of a vacation.). But he didn't want to complain. It was time he could spend with the only member of his family who actually made sense.

Still, without those factors, he wouldn't be here and it was very likely that he wouldn't be looking out of a plastic tent at a rainbow in the sky.

No an Aurora. He wasn't sure if the difference mattered right now. The sky glowed with a light that wasn't a moon. And it had _snowed_ while they were sleeping. Squinting in the dark, Yamato kept near his brother's sleeping form. Then he heard him mumble.

"Onii-chan? It's bright."

In any other situation, he would have said, _that's the moon, Takeru, go back to sleep_. Instead, he said. "Yeah, and I don't like it. Can you get up?"

"Mm." He grunted and rubbed his eyes. Takeru picked himself up and yawned, grabbing his backpack, yawning hugely. As he opened his eyes all the way, he stared up. "Wow, what is that?"

Yamato tried to shush his brother, but too late. Izumi Koushiro was groaning awake. Great. His brother paid them no notice, crawling outside to get a closer look at the rainbow light in the sky. He gasped softly. "Beautiful," he whispered.

The awe in his voice, for some reason, made Yamato's stomach lurch. "It's not normal," he said, remembering his reading. "It's supposed to be in the north and south pole."

"And it snowed!"

Yamato tried to shush him and as he looks around, he realized:

Taichi was gone.

* * *

Without an explanation, because all Taichi provided was a weak one of she fell from the sky. (It's not that it's not true. It's that it's too coincidental again, like always with Taichi.), they took her back to the campsite. The others are still sleeping peacefully, and it takes a legitimate miracle to get her there in the first place. She was understandably confused and none of them had much of an idea either. Sora admitted as much and the girl looked understandably baffled. Yet the sight of all the trees and forest seemed to be keeping her calm, as she didn't ask too many questions.

Sora glanced at Taichi, who swallowed his tongue before nodding decisively. "Let's get everyone up." There was a strange glint in his eyes, almost wet. But Yagami Taichi hadn't cried before her in a long while since he got so sick that breathing hurt and he was actually quite terrified for his life because it hadn't made sense. She examined him for that again, and aside from still shivering from wet shoes and socks, none of that appeared.

He was fine. For now.

Sora decided to listen to him. Yamato scowled but did the same. Not out of anger, she was realizing very quickly. Out of concern, out of fear. They had one more mouth to feed and one more person to help, and they couldn't even help themselves. But as they did so, _something_ moved past them.

It was soft, but it sent gooseflesh creeping up her arms and Sora whipped her head to the right. Piyomon squawked in surprise and fell over, startling Jou-senpai into startled wakefulness. But there was nothing there. Yamato turned to look at her and opened his mouth to say something. She wasn't sure if she knew or cared what it was because he suddenly fell backwards right onto Jou. Jou screeched like a dying animal, which woke everyone else, bar Gomamon, for obvious reasons.

During the scramble, Yamato met Taichi's eyes through his own watering ones. They didn't focus on him at all, only followed something in the chaos. Then he went for Takeru and Koushiro, to help them up. Yamato joined them, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. That thing brushed against him again, and then a third time, like a circling predator shark. Then it was gone, and he felt strangely foolish, like he'd woken up his dad to get water again.

"You too?"

Sora's voice was practically a whisper of terror in the current chaos. Yamato nodded, unable to speak.

He thought Taichi was looking at them both now.

* * *

The bats darted away in the air, making a cloud the color of black smoke as they passed over the island. To them, it was just another place to feed. To the person who used their useless eyes, it smelled of potential. There were children down there, sacred children. Their blood would be the foulest of thing to drink, but the most powerful to , it would take time to do so.

And it would also go against the master's plans to do so. Hm.

The vampire retreated, cowardly though it may seem. They still had to survive the so-called master of the island. Surely, it wouldn't be too difficult. Gears or no gears, he was just another Adult with a swelled head and dramatic tendencies.

It made him almost grateful for the master's assistance in clearing his ears, opening his mind. If only he had taken the chains, the noose along with it.

Ah well, it would not have to become such. Not if he was smart and careful. The destruction of the world was unnecessary if the sun never rose.

The monster chuckled to himself and the bats almost all departed. All but one, which tittered like a small child and dove towards the island, landing in the trees below. Morning was a while yet, but it wouldn't hurt to leave a reminder, for children and master both.

The bat lasted a grand total of one hundred and nine seconds. Then, with a single zap of pink light, it exploded.

Hikari, unseen by even Taichi, smiled a little and faded away.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three - There's One Way To Live

Mimi remembers being terrified of the sky that night. She remembered being frozen down to her toes. Mentally, she remembered thanking her mother for telling her to pack sweaters because nights in the wild were cold no matter what you did. And no matter how civilized they made the campsite, it was still wilderness, no doubt about it.

She had been nice and warm until one of her friends had jostled her awake, looking baffled and scared. (Looking back, she can't remember her name. Miki?) Mimi remembers whining and lashing out in reflex, pulled from a finally comfortable sleep (The ground was too hard!) to have to stay awake.

"The sky, Mimi-chan," her friend had insisted. "Look!"

She hadn't wanted to. Maybe it was because of the way she was shaking, or that now that she was awake enough, she could feel the fact that no one was sleeping anymore. Or maybe it was the sick sense of dread rumbling in her throat but she remembers very clearly not wanting to wake up no matter what, not wanting to see because if she saw whatever it was, she would believe it.

Then, as the snow fell, she had felt that dread multiply, even as they marveled on the beauty of it. And then they all had been herded out to get a head count.

One was missing. Yagami Taichi.

She didn't know much about him. Not anything, actually. She knew his name from soccer club flyers, though why would she have joined? She had known of him as accidentally kicking a ball high enough to hit the classroom next door without breaking it. But Takenouchi Sora beside her had muttered something like annoyance. Like oh, he had done something again.

He must be another silly boy, she had decided.

And as she had thought that, someone had screamed and the sky had started to glow.

* * *

Palmon was the only one who made sense in this world and even _she_ didn't make sense sometimes!

She was happy to walk all over, which the camp had _promised_ would not be every day. She also liked dirt. But she was also a plant, so it made sense for her she supposed. She was not afraid to fight though, which was completely out of left-field. WHy would someone who liked to fight and would fight a giant bug (more ew!) be waiting a long time for her? She didn't want anything to do with any of that! SHe just wanted to go home.

And now there was someone else here. SOmeone else had ended up through a magical portal like on those old Sentai shows and just confirmed what they had unwillfully wanted to grasp: they were in another planet, with earth rules but monsters too and some of them were more involved than others. Some of them talked more than others.

Most just tried to kill them.

"What happened to you?" Jou, next to her, was clutching his medical bag as he asked the question with a quavering voice. It makes her twitch a little, because he's the oldest one here and he's supposed to be keeping it together and yet in all of their time together he never does.

The girl, Meiko-chan, her age probably, Mimi was usually able to tell these things even in a whirl of being so darn confused, was shivering with cold even by the fire. SHe nodded, sneezing a little. "I was at home with Mei-chan." She gestured to the wet and sneezing cat beside her who between every sneeze was glaring at them. Mimi resisted the urge to hide. What a rude cat! Even Taichi-san's cat wasn't that rude. "We were just washing up after dinner and then-" she frowned, quizzically. "There was a girl at my window. She… she was small and smiled at me. And then my window started to glow."

Mimi saw Jou's eyebrow rise with skepticism. But she believed it. There had been something at the campsite that day, something pushing them all closer together, loosely gesturing and such to push them forward. So her being here made sense. But…

"A girl?" That part she did not remember at all.

Meiko nodded slowly. "Uhm…" she closed her eyes. "Brown hair, about… his size." She gestured to Takeru, who stiffened by his brother and he couldn't grasp why. "And big, red eyes."

Taichi's jaw dropped. "You _saw her_?"

Mimi twitched with concern. Saw who?

Meiko nodded and looked at Taichi, which seemed like a relief for her. "Yes. You know her?"

Mimi saw Taichi's jaw tick, his expression shifting to hesitate to answer. But then he nodded. "That's… yeah. But she wasn't supposed to be real. That's my sister."

They all looked at each other.

"That's weird," Mimi finally proclaimed, likely what everyone was thinking.

Taichi snorted. "Yeah, no kidding."

Tailmon looked at them all and scowled, making to readjust her wet fur all over Taichi's shoulder. "She called you all here," she finally said.

Everyone looked at her, so baffled at the sound of her voice. Tailmon didn't talk. It just didn't happen. Not even eternal bubble soda Patamon could get much sound out of her. And they all looked at her like someone would a dog at the pound. For as tacturn as Tailmon was, it was kind of rude, as far as Mimi was concerned.

Too bad no one asked.

Tailmon then shrugged, something she must have learned from Taichi. "That's just my thought process. She wanted me to bring him here for something. You all are here. So she must have done it. So she must exist."

"How…" Taichi murmured. Then something seemed to settle in his eyes and he yawned. "I'm tired."

Mimi laughed. She couldn't help herself. It was the wrong response, but she was tired just as much as he was. It took forever to sleep around here! "Me too!"

Yamato made a face of concern and probably more than a little annoyance, but then Takeru did the same. The look of dismay, the desire for answers, melted when he leaned against his brother.

"Killed the tention huh," Gomamon said cheerfully, flopping back on Jou and causing him to fall over.

Something between Sora and Yamato and even Koushiro and Mimi looked down at her hands. "We're not going to gt any further for tonight, I think," Koushiro finally said, as if doing so was a great effort. She didn't know why, it wasn't that big of a deal. They'd all find out later.

Besides in Mimi's opinion, this was good. If someone could come in, that meant they could come out. Sounded like a plan to her!


End file.
